Government approves financial support for Belarus opposition

The Czech Republic is to give opposition groups in Belarus over 800,000 US dollars in financial support, Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda announced after a government meeting on Wednesday. The aid is to be spent on study grants for expelled students, the provision of information from outside the country, Czech-Belarus NGOs and health care for persecuted citizens of the country. The European Union described recent presidential elections in Belarus as neither free nor fair.